Historical Archaeology and the Environment: A North American Perspective

Abstract

Environment plays an uncertain, variable, and sometimes contradictory role as an explanatory concept in historical archaeology. In this, historical archaeology is not unique. Crumley (1994:2), for example, observes that in the typical introduction to anthropology course or textbook, the environment plays an enormous role in interpreting the early history of human evolution but that “mid-way through the text or term, the environment no longer figures in the narrative except as a resource to be commoditized.”